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Paper Street House
The Paper Street House is the large, crumbling Victorian mansion where Tyler Durden and The Narrator live throughout most of the story. It is actually rented by Tyler with The Narrator's credit card without his knowledge. When Project Mayhem starts it becomes the first chapter house for its members, and it is where all the soap is made. They call it The "Paper Street Soap Company," and it has a reputation for producing one of the best high-end soaps. When Project Mayhem was in the making, Tyler set up bunk beds for 72 members here, and it is where the "space monkeys" work and receive their training. The house's yard is also host to a garden, in which the space monkeys cultivate herbs to put into the soaps. The house is derelict and is situated in an otherwise abandoned industrial area. It's perpetually dirty, with trash strewn about the yard. Barely any of the house's amenities function; the front door lock is useless due to the door having been kicked in sometime in the past, most of the lights don't work due to electrical problems, and many of the house's windows have been boarded up or had newspaper taped over shattered sections. The Narrator notes that when it rains, the electricity must be turned off because the house has a severely leaky roof, some sections having rotted away entirely. This also causes the basement of the house to flood with rainwater. The Narrator goes on to describe that the house smells, the plumbing is filled with rust, and the overall structure of the building feels as though it is ready to collapse, Tyler and Marla's rough sex being enough to dislodge ceiling plaster from the floor below their bed. Due to the power being cut on rainy days, the refrigerator is warm and moldy. Address & Phone Number Three different addresses have been attributed to the Paper Street house. *''420 Paper St. Wilmington DE 19886. Chuck Palahniuk mentioned this address in the afterword of the novel, although he did not directly state that it was the address of the Paper Street house. To date, he has never confirmed this one way or the other. Incidentally, the afterword was written years after the film's release, appearing only in copies of the novel published after 2005. *''537 Paper Street, Bradford 19808. This is how the address appears on Tyler Durden's business card and is widely accepted as the house's official address. *''1537 Paper Street, Bradford DE19808.'' 1537 Paper Street is the address The Narrator gives while being interrogated by the police. It's unknown whether this was a mistake in the dialogue/script, or if it means an error was made in the creation of the business card. There are also three different phone numbers attributed to the house. *''(288) 555-0153. This is the number printed on Tyler Durden's business card. *(288) 555-1534. ''This number is shown on the phone The Narrator uses to call the "1888" office building near the end of the film. *(?78) 761-1583. This number is shown on the phone that The Narrator answers immediately after the "His Name is Robert Paulson" Scene. The first and last digit of the phone number are partially obscured. This is the only number that is non 555 in the middle in the movie. It is not known if this is intentional or random. It is also definitely not the 288 area code that all the other numbers are either. ''Note: At the time of the making of this movie, The 288 area code was not assigned to any actual phone numbers. It was considered "reserved for future use." It is now an area code in Mississippi. '' There is also an additional unknown phone number on the back of Tyler Durden's business card. This card is blank on the back when Tyler originally hands it to The Narrator and it is never shown to be written on. * 555-0178 Trivia The name "Paper Street" is a play on words, and possibly a subtle clue about Tyler Durden's imaginary nature. A paper street is a road or street that appears on maps but does not exist in reality. Paper streets generally occur when city planners or subdivision developers lay out and dedicate streets that are never built. Commercial street maps based only on official subdivision and land records may show these streets, which are legally public rights of way though usually undriveable. Gallery House 01.jpg|Seen at night Tyler Durden's card.JPG|Tyler Durden's business card